Hands of Fire
by ReefChic7
Summary: Eric is helpless as Nora is tortured. This is not an E/N love story. One shot, drabble.


Eric could still smell Nora on his skin, their coupling had been urgent and passionate. He paced like a caged animal inside the silver walled cell. His muscles flexed as he fought to hold the rage inside of him. He could hear the screams of his sister echoing down the dimly lit corridor.

He gripped the silver bars, hissing as his skin began to burn. "Release her!" He commanded. "You have a debt to settle with me, not her! Let her go and deal with me, you cowards! She has nothing to do with this!"

Footsteps echoed down the hall until an Authority guard stood before him, his face concealed in the darkness. "Do you take us for fools, Northman? Or has your human lover made you soft?" The voice taunted him.

Ignoring the taunt that branded him from the inside out, Eric was unyielding. "Nora was ambushed by me and my king. She did not have a choice but to follow orders. I'm older and stronger than her." Eric growled, his voice low and menacing. His fingers tightened around the metal, the scorching of his flesh no longer affecting him. The smell of charred skin filled his nostrils.

"He tells the truth," a voice came from the cell beside him. Bill. "The vampire stood no chance against the two of us."

The guard laughed, chuckling as if he had witnessed a funny story told to him by a mere child. "If that is true, then she is too weak of a vampire to be a chancellor."

Nora's screams silenced and the guard turned to look down the hall. "Ah, perfect timing. Here is your 'victim' now."

Eric strained to see down the hall, but was unable to. He could hear the sounds of metal scraping along the floor, something being drug along the ground.

Nora was lifeless, her body stripped of clothing and encased in silver nets. The smell of burnt flesh intensified as she got closer, being drug by her limp hand by an unseen torturer. She was heaved into the light, where he could see the bubbling and peeling of her skin.

That was not from silver.

"What did you do to her?" Eric growled, reaching through the bar to grab onto the guard.

He was met with an evil laugh. It started quietly, until it was so loud that it hurt his sensitive ears. He backed away from the noise and it was Roman who stood in front of him.

"Acid does marvelous things to a beautiful face, does it not?" Roman asked, his tone thoughtful.

Rage filled him while his fangs extended, aching to rip open the throats of those who hurt her.

"She didn't deserve that." He snarled.

"On the contrary, Viking, she deserves much more." Roman's lip curled into a smile. "This is only the start of what we have planned for our traitorous Chancellor. "

Eric watched as Nora's body was dumped into the cell directly across from his, left in a lump on the floor.

"Dawn is coming, and its time to rest," Roman lamented, tapping his chin. "Too bad Nora won't sleep well tonight." He nodded at the guard who had brought her to her cell, who in turn dumped a bucket over her body.

She woke momentarily and her screams were like nothing Eric had ever heard. No amount of torture to him or any human, or even combined, could match the horror with which she writhed.

"That's enough." Roman commanded when the guard gave her a few swift kicks to the face. He turned back to Eric. "She won't be allowed to heal anytime soon."

"Feed her!" Eric demanded, rising to his full height inside his cell. "She will need to feed if you want to keep her alive."

Roman cocked an eyebrow at him, his sharp fangs peeking through his lips. "Who says I do?"

Eric lunged through the bars, scrambling with his fingertips to grab onto Roman, brushing only the material of his shirt. Roman laughed, the same sickening, haunting laughter that had rung out earlier.

"You can feed her." Roman shrugged. "If you can get to it her."

With that the guard dropped a bag of blood on the floor in between the cells. Eric dropped to his knees as they walked away, reaching through the bars.

"Eric," Nora's voice called to him, her throat ravaged and raw. "Please…help me…brother…"

He stretched out on his belly, stretching to the point he felt his shoulder pop out of the socket. He cried out but pushed himself further. His nails continued to scrape the cement. He was frantic, but it was no use. They had purposely laid the blood just out of his reach. Nora was incapable of getting it herself.

"I'm sorry, Nora." He whispered, leaning against the bars, his face sizzling at the contact. The pain it caused him was not comparable to the pain he felt through his bond with his sister.

"Brother…" her voice was so quiet that only a vampire could hear it. "I…can't…"

"Don't you fucking die on me, Nora!" He yelled. "You are all I have left in this world! Don't you fucking die!"

The bond went silent and he slumped forward, blood red tears streaking down his cheeks. He reached for her in his mind, calling her, pleading with her to stay.

She did not respond.

Nora was gone.


End file.
